A ramble kinda off topic ...

    I had 14 young birders at my house on Friday afternoon (a 1/2 day of 
school) to make a simple bird feeder, talk about bird seed and do a little 
backyard birding.  I had a 40 lb. bag of seed that was mostly milo; a 40 lb. 
bag that was millet, black oil, & a few peanuts; and a container with mostly 
black oil (about 5 pounds).  The kids got to fill a plastic bag with seed to 
start them on their bird feeding careers.  The seed was standing by the 
garage door.

I left the seed out on Friday and it was on my list to put it away on 
Saturday, but I forgot.  Coming home at around 6:30 Saturday evening, I 
pulled into the driveway and said to my wife "That is my seed to attract the 
bear."

        Note:  A black bear has been roaming the Eastern Shore for a couple 
of months, most recently in Centreville eating garbage.  It was seen in my 
neighborhood eating bird seed off and on for the past month, but never in my 
yard which would be a feast for a bear ... bird seed, suet, Asian pears, 
apple trees, brocolli, beets, etc.

Well ... the bear showed up around 9:30 pm.  We could hear something poking 
around the bags which were right outside our bedroom window.  We opened the 
front door and looked out with a really bright flashlight and there it was 
... about 10 feet away ... sitting with its nose in a bag of seed.  It 
looked up but I am sure he could not see us because of the light but he 
certainly could hear us talking.  After a minute or two, he slowly got up 
and walked off.  He did not appear to be a small bear as reported.  But I 
guess all bears at 10 feet look pretty big.
I thought that would be the end of it, but a couple more times during the 
night I heard some noises and at 4 am I opened the front door again with the 
light.  He was sitting quite comfortably in the driveway with bird seed 
scattered all around.  I talked to him for a couple of minutes but he did 
not reply and then he got up and walked thru my pansies.  I hollered at him 
for doing that ,but again, he paid no heed.

Letting the 2 dogs out (Corgis) in the morning was a treat.  The one ignored 
the mess but the other's nose went into overtime.  And one point he hit a 
really good spot and his whole body actually twitched and he jumped back.

Conclusions:  Black bears prefer black oil seed.  He ate the whole 5 pounds. 
Second, was the millet with peanuts.  The 40 pound bag of milo plus meager 
amounts of good stuff was totally untouched.  Not even spilled.  And so much 
for leaving up the hummingbird feeders to attract vagrants ... vagrant bears 
maybe.  He trashed one hummer feeder like totally.  The squirrel proof 
feeder with the 2 inch wire mesh now has a few gaping holes that a squirrel 
can easily get thru.  Plus, he visited the 3 other places in the yard where 
I put out seed.  He also must have been around the chicken coop.  When I 
went to let the chickens out, they were silent - no clucks no crows no 
nothing.

When first spotted, we called the police to see if DNR was interested in 
coming out with a tranq gun.  They were not.  DNR does have a couple of 
traps set up because the bear is getting a little too comfortable with us 
humans.

I know that bears may be a common problem at other parts of the state, but 
this is the Eastern shore.

I added this visitor to my yard list.  He did eat bird seed so that counts 
for something.
Jim Wilson
Queenstown
ps:  All followup emails saying "How stupid can you be" will promptly be 
placed in the "Yes, I know how stupid I can be" file.